Kribensis Eggs!

[David Paquette]

Hi All,

I was cleaning my tank on Wed and discovered that my 2 Kribs have laid eggs!
There looks to be in total about 150 eggs scattered in my rock cave. As far
as I can tell, they must have laid the eggs either on Tuesday or Wednesday.
I'm fairly new to the hobby, and entirely new to breeding fish, so I just
wanted some feedback from people here. Here are the details of my setup.

20 Gallon tank
2 Male Dwarf Gouramis
4 Serpae Tetras
2 Kribensis
2 Live plants

Setup approx. 5-6 months old

I have some green algae growing on the rocks that the eggs are on, so I
think the fry should be able to feed off that once they hatch.

My quetions are:

How long do the eggs take to hatch?

Will they fry survive in my community tank, or should I be seperating them
at some point?

What should I feed them? I've heard that finely crushed flake food is
sufficient if the tank is mature enough.

At what point is it a good idea to remove the babies from their parents.

Thanks,
-David

[Rick]

"David Paquette" > wrote in message
...
> Hi All,
>
> I was cleaning my tank on Wed and discovered that my 2 Kribs have laid
eggs!
> There looks to be in total about 150 eggs scattered in my rock cave. As
far
> as I can tell, they must have laid the eggs either on Tuesday or
Wednesday.
> I'm fairly new to the hobby, and entirely new to breeding fish, so I just
> wanted some feedback from people here. Here are the details of my setup.
>
> 20 Gallon tank
> 2 Male Dwarf Gouramis
> 4 Serpae Tetras
> 2 Kribensis
> 2 Live plants
>
> Setup approx. 5-6 months old
>
> I have some green algae growing on the rocks that the eggs are on, so I
> think the fry should be able to feed off that once they hatch.
>
> My quetions are:
>
> How long do the eggs take to hatch?
>
> Will they fry survive in my community tank, or should I be seperating them
> at some point?
>
> What should I feed them? I've heard that finely crushed flake food is
> sufficient if the tank is mature enough.
>
> At what point is it a good idea to remove the babies from their parents.
>
> Thanks,
> -David
>
>
>

David

my Kribs have bred many times however I have never actually seen the eggs as
I do not disturb the flower pot that they use so I am unable to answer how
long it will take to hatch. My female usually disappears into the pot and
does not come out much at all. At this time I know that she is guarding the
eggs. Finally she will appear with about a 100+ fry following behind her.
Kribs normally are very good and protective parents however I have had one
set where I had to remove the male as he was eating the fry. The female in
my current pair usually puts the run to the male who takes up residence
under a piece of driftwood and risks life and fin trying to sneak out for
some food. From my experience I believe your other fish may be in danger in
this size tank from the protective parents and if not then once the fry
start to venture out on their own , leaving the protective custody of the
near by parents then they will likely get picked off by the other fish/

Rick

[Amateur Cichlids]

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Paquette" >
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria.freshwater.misc
Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 12:50 PM
Subject: Kribensis Eggs!
<snip>
> How long do the eggs take to hatch?

If the eggs are fertile and the female goes back to fanning them, (since
they may have been disturbed), you should see free swimming fry within two
days. Three if you saw the eggs just after being laid.

>
> Will they fry survive in my community tank, or should I be seperating them
> at some point?

Being this is the first brood, there's a chance the parents will eat them,
or the fry could succumb to inadequate water conditions, etc. If the fry
survive the first few days of free swimming, you'll have to watch and see if
the parents guard them adequately enough. As stated before, I'd be more
worried about the other tankmates. At some point, your kribs will want to
breed again, you should separate the fry before this point. If the fry are
doing well with the parents, don't leave them in their past four weeks. They
could probably go longer, but four weeks gives you a good buffer before
breeding occurs again usually.

>
> What should I feed them? I've heard that finely crushed flake food is
> sufficient if the tank is mature enough.
>
I feed mine, crushed brine shrimp flakes, crushed flake food, cyclops and
baby brine shrimp. Don't overfeed as it'll affect water conditions and could
lead to a die off.


> At what point is it a good idea to remove the babies from their parents.
>
(See above)
> Thanks,
> -David
>

Tim
www.fishaholics.org
http://www.fishaholics.org/show_fish.php?FishIndex=7 For the profile I wrote
on Kribs.

[default]

"David Paquette" > wrote in message
...
> Hi All,
>
> I was cleaning my tank on Wed and discovered that my 2 Kribs have laid eggs!
> There looks to be in total about 150 eggs scattered in my rock cave. As far
> as I can tell, they must have laid the eggs either on Tuesday or Wednesday.
> I'm fairly new to the hobby, and entirely new to breeding fish, so I just
> wanted some feedback from people here. Here are the details of my setup.

> Will they fry survive in my community tank, or should I be seperating them
> at some point?
>

Hi David, Good luck with the eggs and fry. While I don't have experience with Kribs, I
do have a story to tell about my cichlids. I had several in a tank and two Africans
paired up and layed a batch of eggs. I think I only noticed the first batch because the
eggs had hatched, and they were wiggling! Next morning, nuthin'. I think a pleco got
'em. After a week or so, another batch of eggs appeared. This time I sequesterd the
object and the eggs hatched, the fry appeared, then they all got sucked into the gravel
from the undergravel filter. Next batch did better, but the parents ate them. After 12
batches and about 9 different failure modes, I gave up. It was a real fun learning
experience to say the least.

Moral of the story? Don't get too frustrated if the first batch doesn't make it. If you
can, create the same water conditions in a separate tank and move the pair to it alone.
That will solve the community problems.

steve "new to the group, had fish for years, starting again" bloom

[David Paquette]

Thanks for the helpful feedback everyone!

I left town for the weekend (It's Thanksgiving Day in Canada), and when I
came back, the eggs were gone, and there's no sign of any fry anywhere. The
female still seems to be guarding the cave, but she certainly isn't guarding
anything. My theory is the fish Kribs got hungry while I was gone and they
ate the eggs. Any other ideas as to what happened?

-David


"David Paquette" > wrote in message
...
> Hi All,
>
> I was cleaning my tank on Wed and discovered that my 2 Kribs have laid
eggs!
> There looks to be in total about 150 eggs scattered in my rock cave. As
far
> as I can tell, they must have laid the eggs either on Tuesday or
Wednesday.
> I'm fairly new to the hobby, and entirely new to breeding fish, so I just
> wanted some feedback from people here. Here are the details of my setup.
>
> 20 Gallon tank
> 2 Male Dwarf Gouramis
> 4 Serpae Tetras
> 2 Kribensis
> 2 Live plants
>
> Setup approx. 5-6 months old
>
> I have some green algae growing on the rocks that the eggs are on, so I
> think the fry should be able to feed off that once they hatch.
>
> My quetions are:
>
> How long do the eggs take to hatch?
>
> Will they fry survive in my community tank, or should I be seperating them
> at some point?
>
> What should I feed them? I've heard that finely crushed flake food is
> sufficient if the tank is mature enough.
>
> At what point is it a good idea to remove the babies from their parents.
>
> Thanks,
> -David
>
>
>

[2pods]

"David Paquette" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks for the helpful feedback everyone!
>
> I left town for the weekend (It's Thanksgiving Day in Canada), and when I
> came back, the eggs were gone, and there's no sign of any fry anywhere.
> The
> female still seems to be guarding the cave, but she certainly isn't
> guarding
> anything. My theory is the fish Kribs got hungry while I was gone and
> they
> ate the eggs. Any other ideas as to what happened?
>
> -David
>

The Kribs accessed your ebay account while you were away, and sold all their
children to lfs's via the web.

This is why the female is guarding the cave......that's where they've
stashed the proceeds ;-)

Peter

[David Paquette]

Cute

"2pods" > wrote in message
...
> "David Paquette" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Thanks for the helpful feedback everyone!
>>
>> I left town for the weekend (It's Thanksgiving Day in Canada), and when I
>> came back, the eggs were gone, and there's no sign of any fry anywhere.
>> The
>> female still seems to be guarding the cave, but she certainly isn't
>> guarding
>> anything. My theory is the fish Kribs got hungry while I was gone and
>> they
>> ate the eggs. Any other ideas as to what happened?
>>
>> -David
>>
>
> The Kribs accessed your ebay account while you were away, and sold all
> their
> children to lfs's via the web.
>
> This is why the female is guarding the cave......that's where they've
> stashed the proceeds ;-)
>
> Peter
>

[David Paquette]

I found the baby Kribs yesterday when I was doing my weekly water change.
They were in the gravel. They blended in so good that I didn't see them
until it was too late. I sucked them up with my siffon tube. I put them
back, but it's hard to say what will happen now. I feel terrible.

-David



"David Paquette" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks for the helpful feedback everyone!
>
> I left town for the weekend (It's Thanksgiving Day in Canada), and when I
> came back, the eggs were gone, and there's no sign of any fry anywhere.
> The
> female still seems to be guarding the cave, but she certainly isn't
> guarding
> anything. My theory is the fish Kribs got hungry while I was gone and
> they
> ate the eggs. Any other ideas as to what happened?
>
> -David
>
>
> "David Paquette" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I was cleaning my tank on Wed and discovered that my 2 Kribs have laid
> eggs!
>> There looks to be in total about 150 eggs scattered in my rock cave. As
> far
>> as I can tell, they must have laid the eggs either on Tuesday or
> Wednesday.
>> I'm fairly new to the hobby, and entirely new to breeding fish, so I just
>> wanted some feedback from people here. Here are the details of my setup.
>>
>> 20 Gallon tank
>> 2 Male Dwarf Gouramis
>> 4 Serpae Tetras
>> 2 Kribensis
>> 2 Live plants
>>
>> Setup approx. 5-6 months old
>>
>> I have some green algae growing on the rocks that the eggs are on, so I
>> think the fry should be able to feed off that once they hatch.
>>
>> My quetions are:
>>
>> How long do the eggs take to hatch?
>>
>> Will they fry survive in my community tank, or should I be seperating
>> them
>> at some point?
>>
>> What should I feed them? I've heard that finely crushed flake food is
>> sufficient if the tank is mature enough.
>>
>> At what point is it a good idea to remove the babies from their parents.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> -David
>>
>>
>>
>
>

[Timothy Chu]

Don't worry about it--even if the first batch don't survive, the
parents will inevitably lay another clutch in a couple weeks. Once
they start, they don't stop. They take really good care of their
young, so unless you have some large cichlids to hunt them down, I
think they'll be fine.

<tim><

"David Paquette" > wrote in message >...
> I found the baby Kribs yesterday when I was doing my weekly water change.
> They were in the gravel. They blended in so good that I didn't see them
> until it was too late. I sucked them up with my siffon tube. I put them
> back, but it's hard to say what will happen now. I feel terrible.
>
> -David